Please find enclosed a statement reviewing all of the ups and downs and all of the
institutional vicissitudes suffered by
by the AEP and which reaffirms our determination to
stick with the campaign to recover that which was stripped from the working class in
this country.
Putting paid to worker culture … through red tape. We return to the charge with this

expose of the nonnon-implementation of the agreement made to endow the Ateneu
Enciclopèdic Popular and its vitally important documentary resources – bearing witness
to the working class’s culture and its struggles - with a suitable premises.

MANIFEST FROM THE ATENEU ENCICLOPÈ
ENCICLOPÈDIC POPULAR
(BARCELONA)
AN INJUSTICE IN NEED OF REPAIR

The Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular (AEP) was launched in 1902 by two working men,
Eladi Gardo and Josep Tubau and a 22 year old student, Francesc Layret, in Layret’s
home.
Later the AEP moved into premises at No 30, Carrer del Carme (Barcelona) where it
occupied 4 floors, each in excess of 100 square metres, plus basements. In addition, it
had premises on the Carrer Portaferissa, a chalet in La Molina (seized by the Francoists
and now occupied by the Generalitat) and a plot of land on the Ramblas adjacent to
Pintor Fortuny, presently the site of a hotel. It boasted an important library divided into
several sections – Literature & Fine Arts, Economics, Naturism, and a Commerce
Studies and Languages Night School –where its members (upwards of 25,000 of them)
pursued their interests.
The AEP represented a place where workers could find a quality popular educational
alternative to the bourgeois version and this was maintained by the workers themselves
in the form of commitment and subscriptions, together with students and professionals
who made their expertise available.
A wide spectrum of individuals of great civic talent and importance belonged to the
AEP: people such as Layret, Companys, Joan Bastardes, Jaume Aiguader, Josep M De
Sucre, Ángel Pestaña, Joan Salvat Papasseit, Joan Amades, Salvador Seguí, Victor
Colomer, Amadeu Hurtado, Joaquim Maurin, Jaume Serra Hunter, J P Fábregas …

The AEP was to play a leading part in setting the tone of city life. It mounted numerous
campaigns in defence of the rights of workers and citizens and against war and
militarism. It laid on a huge number of debates and lectures with a very wide variety of
contributions from all who had something to say in order to enrich Catalan culture. It
also promoted other sots of cultural activities, such as poetry recitals by Federico García
Lorca and Margarita Xirgu at the Barcelona theatre, held to mark the reopening of
various libertarian workers’ ateneos shut down as a result of the revolution in Asturias in
1934. The day after that recital, Lorca penned a moving letter to his parents about it,
explaining how things had gone, how it had drawn thousands of people, inside and
outside the theatre. Lorca signed off by saying: “It was the most moving gathering in my
entire life.”
The AEP carried on with its activities up until Francoist troops overran it on 26 January
1939, being the first non-governmental premises taken over by the Francois troops
commanded by General Yagüe. Its resources were confiscated – the archives along with
the books held in its library were burnt on the Ramblas.
From that date forward, the AEP was non-existent throughout the nearly forty years of
the cruel Francoist dictatorship.
In 1977, thanks to the efforts of a small number of people, the AEP was reborn, ready
to salvage the memories not just of the Ateneu itself, but that of an entire people that
had fought fascism and which, at certain points, had managed to defeat it, and eager to
carry on with the cultural and educational mission that the AEP had performed during
the years between 1902 and 1939. Following a fire at the premises on the Carrer Reina
Amalia, it moved first to the No 5, Carrer Montalegre and thence to No 26 Passeig de
S. Joan, in precarious circumstances and temporarily throughout. At present it has a
membership of 200.
The Ateneu has played a significant part in the recovery of Historical Memory.
Together with the Centre de Documentació Histórico-social it currently holds
thousands of documents and publications – upwards of 12,000 titles – rescued for
classification and archiving over the past thirty years, plus some 30,000 books and
currently represents an indispensable source consulted by all investigating the workers’
movement or popular culture in Catalonia.
Furthermore, it has engaged in intensive educational and cultural work, staging
numerous events: lectures, debates, poetry recitals, book launches and documentary
launches, travelling exhibitions like the ones on Ferrer i Guardia, the social ferment of
the 1920s, the libertarian press during the underground years ..

And it has also been actively involved alongside other collectives and individuals, in civic
projects like “Re-thinking Barcelona”, the DVD on “La ciutat suplantada”, etc.
With the ending of the Dictatorship, the matter of the confiscated asses of the AEP
became a matter of justice to be sorted out with the utmost urgency. But, more than 37
months on from the death of the Dictator and upwards of 34 months on from the
approval of the current Constitution, nothing has been done to remedy that confiscation
despite the multiple overtures made.
Those overtures began back in the days when Narcis Serra was mayor of Barcelona and
in recent years they have been stepped up. Thus, in 2004, the AEP held talks with the
supervisors of Ciutat Vella (Old City) district, Carles Martí and Itziar Gonzáles and
with the Generalitat’s head of archives, Ramón Albert. In October 2006, the AEP issued
a statement calling for its assets to be returned, a statement that was submitted first to
the CCCB and subsequently to other bodies such as the Ateneu Barcelonés. In 2008, it
issued a letter in which it spelled out its position and demands, to the mayor of
Barcelona, to the Generalitat’s Councillor in charge of Culture and to the Speaker of the
Parliament of Catalonia and the teaching staff at the Contemporary History Department
at Barcelona University forwarded to the Councillor for Culture a letter endorsing the
demands of the AEP. In 2009, the AEP issued a letter, similar to the one just cited, to
all the political parties represented in the institutions.
Finally, at the 3 March 2009 Municipal Plenum of the Ciutat Vella district, at the
suggestion of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), supported by every other
political party with the exception of the PP (Partido Popular), which chose to abstain, it
was determined that the AEP should be furnished with fixed premises of considerable
area in the El Raval barrio where it might get on with its activities.
That resolution from the Plenum was, however, not implemented during its recent term,
albeit that the district president, Senyor Carles Martí, gave an explicit undertaking in
response to the challenge brought by the AEP before the Public High Court on 9 March
2010. Given the persistent failure to implement the resolution, the AEP brought a
second complaint before the Public Court on 10 March 2011. The mandate expired
before a calendar could even be agreed or a premises selected.
On foot of the second challenge, in March 2011, His Excellency Senyor Jordi Hereu
Bhoer, speaking for the Most Excellent City Council of Barcelona and Senyor Manel
Aisa Pampols, representing the Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular in his capacity as President
signed a cooperation agreement between Barcelona City Council and the Ateneu
Enciclopèdic Popular apropos of the usufruct of premises, in which agreement it was

stated, among other things, that “Barcelona City Council, within no more than two years

from the signing of this present Protocol, is to offer the Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular
premises to be used as its base and for the pursuit of the activities proper to it.” “The
premises to be offered to the Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular shall meet the requisite
specifications so that the latter can, in appropriate circumstances, pursue its ateneorelated activities (lectures, debates, recitals, exhibitions, documentation, etc.) as well as
its archival and public reference activities” … “Said premises must consist of a usable
floor space of between 750 and 100 square metres. The premises shall consist of at the
least a ground floor.”
As of today’s date, however, now that the period of grace laid down in the Protocol has
run out, and despite any talks held with the City Council, the latter has not offered any
premises meeting the specifications laid down in the afore-mentioned Protocol, which
constitutes another blatant failure to deliver on the part of the city authorities, on the
accords to which Barcelona City Council had signed up.
All things considered, it is plain that the representatives of the institutions vested with
the ability to remedy, albeit only in part, the losses suffered by the AEP, lack any
political will to do so. Thereby constituting a blatant injustice, a grievance which in this
specific instance is all the more outrageous in that the AEP was such a significant factor
in the forging of the mind-set of the Barcelona which on 19 July 1936 proved capable
to defeating the army in its attempt to impose fascism.
So much so that it is as if General Mola’s war-time watchword “We must put paid to
worker culture” were still in force. A motto which General Yagüe so diligently enforced
against the AEP on 26 January 1039.